Current generation multimedia devices such as smart phones, mp3 players etc. support networking, including wireless networking. Also, the demand for networked and internet-based media is rising. One of the most common techniques for creating a home network uses wireless radio signal technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. When using wireless technology for home networking, a wireless access point (WAP) functions as the focal point of the home network. The various devices acting as Wi-Fi clients have to be within the range of the WAP to communicate with the WAP, which acts as a Wi-Fi server. Most devices that are wireless-capable operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. The WAP admits or connects the requesting devices to the network if the device can provide authentic credentials. An important function of the home network or local area network is the sharing of Internet access, which is typically provided by a broadband service and a cable modem or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).
In a conventional arrangement, all the network traffic is routed through the WAP. Thus, when any of the client devices exchange information with a device outside the network, the traffic is mediated through the WAP. Using this architecture, a network-connected multimedia device may support a wide range of services such as internet radio stations, FM radio, online video stores, video broadcast services, media stores and media servers. For example, audio and/or video content may be streamed from a remote location over the network, played from a local storage, or played from an electronic device docked to the multimedia device. The local storage may be a storage accessed over a local area network as opposed to local storage accessible directly from the multimedia system without involving any network, for example, a USB stick.
In a first scenario, where the content is streamed from a remote location over a WAN, such as an Internet radio service, the device providing the content is referred to as a “remote source”. In a second scenario, another local device such as a laptop or personal computer (the “local source”) hosts the media server and streams music over the local area network to the multimedia device. In this case, both the local source and the multimedia device rendering the media content are part of the local area network or the home network.
Typically, a multimedia device supporting wireless connectivity operates as a wireless client and must be configured to become a part of the wireless home network by providing the necessary credentials using a configuration process. After getting configured, the multimedia device connects to the WAP and thus becomes a part of the home network, and media content streamed to the multimedia device is routed through the WAP.
While the approach mentioned above for wireless networking works well when accessing multimedia content from a remote source, it suffers from many limitations when accessing the content from a local source present in the same local network.
One of the limitations is that both the local source and the multimedia device used for rendering must be within an operational range of the WAP. Further, if the WAP becomes unavailable due to some technical difficulties, the local source cannot communicate with the multimedia device. Moreover, the WAP introduces additional delays in the data path as all information exchanged in the network is routed via the WAP. Also, the bandwidth utilization of the wireless media is sub-optimal because the same information is sent over the air twice, i.e., once from the local source to the WAP and then from the WAP to the multimedia device or the target device.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods to exchange data among devices present in the same local or home network without the need for an intermediary device such as the WAP.